Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova

THE PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA, constituted after free and democratic elections,

taking into account the millenary history of our people and its uninterrupted statehood within its historical and ethnic area of its national making,

considering the acts of dismemberment of its national territory between 1775 and 1812 as being contradictory to the historical right of its people and the judicial stature of the principality of Moldova, acts recalled by the entire historical evolution and the free will of the population of Bessarabia and Bucovina,

underlining the existence of Moldovans in Transnistria, a component part of the historical and ethnic territory of our people,

acknowledging that declarations by many parliaments of many states consider the agreement of August 23, 1939, between the government of the USSR and the government of Germany null and void ab initio and demand that the political and judicial consequences of the above be eliminated, a fact revealed also by the declaration of the international conference "The Molotov- Ribbentrop pact and its consequences for Bessarabia", adopted on 28 June 1991,

pointing out that, without the prior consultation of the population of Bessarabia, Northern Bucovina and Herta District, occupied by force on June 28, 1940 as well as the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Autonomous Republic (Transnistria) established on Oct. 12, 1924, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, by infringing its constitutional prerogatives, adopted the "Law of the USSR on the establishment of the Moldavian SSR" on August 2, 1940, and its Presidium issued "The Decree concerning the frontiers between the Ukrainian SSR and the Moldavian SSR", on November 4, 1940, judicial acts whereby, in the absence of any real legal basis, it was attempted to justify the dismantlement of those territories and the incorporation of the new republic into the USSR,

recalling that during the recent years the democratic national liberation movement of the population of the Republic of Moldova reaffirmed its aspirations for freedom, independence and national unity, expressed in final documents of the Great National Reunion of Chisinau on 27 August, 1989, 16 December, 1990 and 27 August, 1991, laws and decisions of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova concerning the laws reintroducing Romanian as the state language and the Latin alphabet on August 31, 1989, the state flag on 27 April, 1990, the state emblem on November 3, 1990 and the change of the official name of the republic on May 23, 1991,

taking as a basis the declaration concerning State Sovereignty of the Republic of Moldova, adopted by the parliament on June 23, 1990, and the fact that the population of the Republic of Moldova, in its own right as a sovereign people, did not participate at the referendum on the preservation of the USSR, held on March 17, 1991, in spite of the pressures exercised by the state organs of the USSR,

taking into account the irreversible processes taking place in Europe and elsewhere in the world calling for democracy, freedom and national unity, for the establishment of a state of law and the transformation towards a free market,

reaffirming the equal rights of peoples and their right to self-determination, as laid down in the UN Charta, the Helsinki Final Act and the norms of international law pertaining to the above,

considering, in view of all of the above, that the time has come for the proclamation of a judicial act, in accordance with the history of our people and moral norms of international law,

PROCLAIMS SOLEMNLY,

in the virtue of the right of self-determination of peoples, in the name of the entire population of the Republic of Moldova, and in front of the whole world, that:

THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA IS A SOVEREIGN, INDEPENDENT AND DEMOCRATIC STATE, FREE TO DECIDE ITS PRESENT AND FUTURE, WITHOUT ANY EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE, KEEPING WITH THE IDEALS AND ASPIRATIONS OF THE PEOPLE WITHIN ITS HISTORICAL AND ETHNIC AREA OF ITS NATIONAL MAKING.

In its quality as a SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATE, THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA, hereby

requests all states and world governments to recognize the independence of the Republic of Moldova, as proclaimed by the freely elected parliament of the republic and is willing to establish political, economic and cultural relations and any other relations of common interest with European countries and all other countries of the world, and is ready to establish diplomatic relations with the above, in accordance with the norms of international law and common practice on the above matter,

requests the United Nations to admit the Republic of Moldova as a full member of the world organization and its specialized agencies,

declares that it is ready to adhere to the Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charta for a new Europe, equally asking to be admitted to the CSCE and its mechanisms, with equal rights,

requests the USSR to begin negotiations with the government of the Republic of Moldova to terminate the illegal state of occupation and annexation and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from its national territory,

decides that no other laws should be respected on its territory but those that are in conformity with the republic's constitution, laws and all other legal acts adopted by the legally constituted organs of the Republic of Moldova,

guarantees the exercise of social, economic, cultural and political rights for all citizens of the Republic of Moldova, including those of national, ethnic, religious and linguistic groups, in conformity with the provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and documents adopted afterwards, as well as the Paris Charta for a new Europe.

SO HELP US GOD!

Adopted in Chisinau, by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova on this day, the 27th of August, 1991.